


They Are Still The Same

by SaltyCalm



Category: Black Sails
Genre: M/M, Post-Finale, Season 4 Finale Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:33:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23071762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaltyCalm/pseuds/SaltyCalm
Summary: Fifteen years fall away.
Relationships: Captain Flint | James McGraw/Thomas Hamilton
Comments: 7
Kudos: 59





	They Are Still The Same

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alwaysanoriginal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alwaysanoriginal/gifts).



> I finished Black Sails last night and wrote this in a tv-hangover stupor. 
> 
> @CharCubed, this meager offering is a gift to you for 1) bringing this show to my awareness 2) yelling at and with me about it for the past several weeks 3) being an amazing friend 4) to commemorate another successful revolution around the Sun 5) I TOLD YOU I WANTED THOMAS TO SAY HIS NAME

The manacles fall away, but he still stands there, frozen. 

His back is turned, but God, he once knew every dip of muscle, every callous. His hair is sun bleached, now more than it ever could have been even in a London summer. But it is the same. His back looks fuller, arms muscled from relentless days. But it is the same.

He turns, and Flint feels his feet pulling him forward. 

When he’s near enough to speak and be heard without raising his voice he stops, as if afraid to close the gap. 

Thomas’ eyes are still struck in disbelief, making sense of the man standing before him. Time has worn grooves into that face, but the curve of his mouth. Still the same.

Even in the heat of battle Flint’s heart has never beat this hard, this fluttering and desperate.

For an eternal moment there is nothing but thud - thud of the scrape of metal over earth. The strained breaths of the workers as they toil beneath the stifling weight of the sun.

And then Thomas smiles, and oh, the warmth in his eyes. They are still the same.

He pulls him into his arms, and now he smells like sweat and earth, but his chest is pressed up against his own. He is here.

Thomas laughs, a quiet thing just escaping his lips, and Flint feels his face twist up - he is weeping. Then Thomas’ hands are cupped around his face, his forehead pressed to his. 

His lips are on his, chapped and rough in a way they weren’t before. But the feeling that sweeps from the top of his head to deep in his gut to the end of his toes is the same.

Thomas pulls back, and Flint leans forward, seeking him, but Thomas says, “James” and the sound of his voice is still the same.

Fifteen years fall away. 

\---

James has started to let his hair grow out again. It started by accident, mere lack of thought, but Thomas brushed his fingers over the hopeful strands and smiled, so James let it be. 

Now they lay in the tall grass, shaded by passing clouds.

James is on his back, squinting up at the clouds. Thomas plucks at a plant, idly tossing pieces of it in his direction. 

“McGraw,” he says, and James knows that tone of voice.

He turns and looks up into those sweet eyes, hums softly when he is kissed, first sweetly, then hungrily. Thomas speaks a whole language in his kisses. 

Their bodies are different now, scarred and bruised and eroded by time. They take their time recharting their course. 

But when their breaths mingle and James feels Thomas’ heartbeat against his own chest, it is still the same.

  
  



End file.
